Nanouk
by babyoranges
Summary: Living up to your name is one thing, but being thrown into a 100 year old war is a whole other level. No, try another world. OC
1. Rochelle

**ROCHELLE**

"Jesus Ro, can you smile a little?"

Rochelle's eye twitched.

"You're at a freakin' party! If you don't wanna be here, go home! Omg."

She had every right to frown. And she sure as hell wasn't going home. On her life, she would be one of the last five people to leave.

The girl skipped away from leaning on the arm of the couch, too focused on who to talk to next, rather than Rochelle's irritation. The brown leather squeaked under Rochelle as she sunk further into the cushions. Before she was interrupted, Rochelle had tried to focus on the tingling in her fingers from holding onto a cold beer for a little too long. But now she could only focus on home, the only reason she was at this freakin' party. In her little, two bedroom apartment lived her, her mom, and, recently, her mom's boyfriend. Earlier that evening, her mom had found out that her boyfriend had been hitting up the casinos with his last couple of monthly paychecks from the military. Living with him for four months, Rochelle came to the conclusion that he was a damn bum.

She was studying for her statistics test on the kitchen table when her mom came in through the front door and marched straight back into her and her boyfriend's room. Rochelle didn't realize what was happening until their loud voices turned into yelling. The yelling turned into screaming, and soon she found her feet leading her to the room.

She had walked in thinking she could help, buffer, distract, _whatever._ All you need to know is that it didn't work. As soon as she walked in the room, the screaming was directed at her. Rochelle had thought that her mom's boyfriend was going to hit her once he approached, but instead she was just shoved out of the room with the door slammed in her face. The decibel of voices rose, leading Rochelle to understand that her mom's boyfriend was a freeloading bitch, while also leadingRochelle to the conclusion that she needed to get the hell out. Now listen, this wasn't the first time the two argued, and it most definitely wouldn't be the last. The couple argued about many many things: money, washing the dishes, the car, what to watch on TV, and everything in between. But this time, Rochelle didn't want to hear it. She grabbed her wallet, phone, keys, and strode right out the door. She was almost too thankful it was a friday. She had heard about a party that was going on a couple of streets over.

So here she was, staring at a red solo cup that had rolled its way a couple of inches from her feet. Her can was only half way empty, Rochelle had only been sipping since she found her spot. A couple of people had come and gone as her couchmates, but she was basically alone. She knew some classmates who had also showed. They greeted her when she arrived, and then she had taken a little walk through the party, which was nice, but Rochelle just wasn't really feeling up for company tonight. Honestly, she wasn't really feeling up for anything tonight.

Therefore, she wouldn't. Rochelle lifted her half empty can of Natural Light and chugged. She raised herself from her position on the couch and drifted into the kitchen. After she made herself a few drinks, she grabbed her solo cups and returned back to her spot on the couch. One song was followed by another song, then another one, just like solo cups Rochelle would collect alongside her feet. Her cups would empty, and she would walk back into the kitchen for more. She would sit in her spot once more, and the cycle would continue. A few people had wandered in and out of the room, probably to look for a bathroom or take a break from the deafening boom of music, but Rochelle was only focused on her goal to forget. She continued to drink until finally her vision began to blur and she needed to lean onto the wall in order to make it back to the kitchen.

Rochelle had tripped into the kitchen, toppling onto the countertop for support, when someone finally noticed her state. A guy looked over at the sudden noise of cups bouncing off the floor. "Hey are you okay?" he asked. He was talking with a couple of friends when he noticed her visible drunkenness.

Rochelle slurs, "yeah, ye-yeah, I'm fine. Why?" She stumbles over to the collection of vodka bottles and tries to reach for a new cup, but misses.

"Hey, I'm just makin' sure you're okay. You got any friends here?"

She scrunches up her face. "Of course I have friends, the fuck? Everyone here is my friend!" she yells. Rochelle finally grabs a cup, sets it down, then reaches for the closest vodka bottle.

He snatches the bottle out of her reach and pulls it close to him. "Woah woah woah! I think that's enough, why don't you take a seat, do you want to sit down?"

Indignant, Rochelle yells, "noooo, I wanna drink! Let me drink!" A girl in the group of friends reacts to her yelling and comes over to help. She pushes past him to take hold of Rochelle's hands.

"Hey hun, is everything okay? Do you need some water?" she says concerningly. The girl starts to slowly lead Rochelle towards the doorway, but Rochelle is adamant.

Rochelle pulls back. "No no no no, nothing is okay! I just really wanna drink right now, please," she begs. She rubs her hands over her face as her eyes begin to water. She really wants to drink. She wants to drink to forget about everything that happened tonight, to forget about that dumb bitch who spent her and her mom's rent money, to forget that she has homework she didn't finish, and how she has to go back home at some fucking point in time! She can't go back! _I never wanna go back, _she thinks.

"We should sit her down," the boy says as he looks back at the bystanders that began to peer in and clutter the kitchen doorway.

"You're right. Okay babe, uh, sweetie? We're gonna go sit on the couch, okay? You might be able to get a drink later if you calm down," the girl compromises, although she has no intention of following through. She begins to lead Rochelle out of the kitchen before she could respond.

"Fine fine. Ugh, my spot, take me to my spot please," whimpers Rochelle as she staggers into the living room. The girl helps her onto the couch Rochelle previously vacated. Rochelle then shifts to lay on her side.

"There you go. Stay here, I'll be right back. Hey Mark! Did you find some water?"

Rochelle's world starts to tip and turn, and the only way she thinks to combat that is to go to sleep. As Rochelle's eyes slip closed, the last thing she sees is stained carpet and red solo cups.


	2. Nanouk

**NANOUK**

The girl ran.

She ran and ran until she couldn't feel the ache in her legs anymore. She had never run this far in her life. Only in games with her cousins and the other village kids. She was always where she needed to be. At home, where she was protected, where she was safe.

But she had to go.

Tripping onto the snowy ground, she choked on her gasping breath. As she tried to stand, her body quaked with adrenaline and shook from overuse. It was hard to move, but she had to keep going. She needed shelter. With solely the moon as her companion, she didn't want to risk any other company tonight.

The girl willed her legs to work, using her arms to push herself up. The pack she wore across her back made her even heavier. _Spirits_, she was tired. If she knew it would've been this much trouble, she would've packed lighter. She squinted into the night as she stood, scoping the landscape. There! A snow cave amongst the mountains of snow. She could barely see it in the darkness. From this distance, it was about the size of her fist. The cave was far, but she would make it, then she could finally sleep.

The girl approached the cave at a slow pace, she was far from the village now. She had started running as soon as darkness crept over the tundra. The moon shone high in the sky now, even the stars had shifted their position. Below the magnificent sight, the girl trudged along. Alone amongst the piles and piles of snow and ice.

Once the girl stepped into the cave and set down her pack, she flopped onto the cold ground. Her hand slipped into the front pocket of her pack, which contained the last bit of tiger seal meat her village dried for the season. Content with her current spot, as she chewed, the girl began to wonder, _what now?_ She had left her _home_ in order to help the village, but what could she do now? She had nowhere to go and she couldn't go back. She had only brought a knife, the dried meat, her fishing line and pole, and a fire starter. She would die at this rate. She was only a little girl. The girl clenched the jerky in her hand,_ it doesn't matter anyways, I'm better off gone. _

The word _home_ echoed in her head as she looked across the barren terrain. She no longer had a home, no longer had a family, and she deserved it. It was all her fault, she was a coward! She should have been stronger. Her cousins would've never let this happen if they were in her place. They wouldn't have ran and hid, they would've tried to protect the village! She would be named a disgrace if she went back. She might even get banished! _No, it's better off this way. _Could she go to another village? _No!_ The girl furiously shook her head to herself. No, she couldn't do that, the soldiers would come looking for her again. They would find her. She can't let that happen. No one else could get hurt by her again. Like how she hurt her village, her family.

She wished she could be more like her cousins, brave and courageous. She was neither of those things. The only things they had in common was their village and their bloodline.

The girl another bite, staring off into the night, wishing to be somewhere else, someone else. Absorbed in thought, she didn't hear the soft footsteps of—

_Crunch, crunch, crunch. _

A loud rumbling alerted her to the fact that she was not alone. Her heart jumped in her chest. _Crunch. _The fur from her hood blocked her peripheral vision, so all she could see was the faint outline of a muzzle, and the glare of nocturnal eyes. As she slowly turned her head to fully face the animal, it steadily crept closer, inch by inch.

The moonlight soon slipped over the creature. It was a foxhound. And it was big, bigger than any foxhound that was raised in the village. No, this thing was _wild. _It was wild, probably hungry, and desperate. That was the worst combination for running into any animal in the South Pole. And its eyes were solely focused on the jerky in her hand.

The girl trembled as her blood began to rush through her body. She knew her mistake instantly. She stepped into the foxhounds territory, with food. She had to get out and quick.

She went to stand, but the thing lunged towards her. Its jaws locked around her calf. "Aggghhh!" The girl screeched in pain. The animal shook its head, her leg following it's movements. The girl was in terrible pain, she had never felt anything like this. She couldn't remember anything her ataata taught her, she couldn't think at all. With a grunt, she dug her hands into the frozen ground for leverage as she drove her free foot into the foxhound's face. The girl had to kick three times before it finally let go. She scrambled as fast as she could out of the cave.

She had only crawled for a short amount of time before the foxhound pounced on her back. She fell face forward into the ground with her breath forced from her lungs. The girl could hear its deep panting breaths under her wheezing. _I'm going to die, _she thought. She hadn't even survived a day outside of the village. _Pathetic. _She'll never see her mom, her dad, her brother, her cousins, or even the village, ever again. The last things she would see were ice and snow.

As her face began to numb from being pressed against the frozen ground, and as her vision began to blur, she wished for forgiveness for hurting her family, the village. She wished she was stronger, she wished she would've helped instead, she wished she hadn't messed everything up, she wished—

Everything turned black.

* * *

**I'm off to a slow start, but he drama is coming soon! **


	3. Awake

**AWAKE**

As soon as Rochelle's eyes slipped open, her limbs tensed in response. Every muscle snapped to attention. Her legs weighed two tons too heavy, her arms were sore and achy, and the best part? Her neck was stiff. She felt like she'd been awoken from the dead. It was like she'd only slept for a second. Rochelle tried to roll over, but _fuck_ her body hurt. She let out a raspy groan.

It was dark, minus the slivers of light reflecting onto a wall. From what she could see with her fuzzy vision, it was either a cinder block wall or some weird ass wallpaper. Where the hell was she? Last thing she remembered was drinking at the party. Did she fall asleep? Did cops shut down the party? Did they get her for underaged drinking? Wait...Was she in jail? _Nah, 'cause they would have had to bring me to the hospital if I wouldn't wake up. _She quickly rid herself of the thought. _I'm pretty sure I just passed out on the couch. _Well, she hoped she passed out on the couch. Maybe someone brought her upstairs to sleep_, _but she couldn't remember anything past drinking. So what happened?

Rochelle slowly craned her head towards the doorway, but instead of a door, she spotted a draped curtain, light streaming through the gaps of cloth. It was covering an arched doorway. She slowly sat up, causing the blankets covering her to pool into her lap. Rochelle ran her hands over them. They were fluffy on one side, smooth on the other. They also had some weight to them, for blankets. There were at least three. It was cold without her being under them.

As she rolled onto her hands and knees, she moaned as pain shot through her right shoulder. Rochelle moved to stand, only to fall onto the pile of blankets. Putting weight onto her left ankle hurt, like _hurt_ hurt. She couldn't tell if it was broken, she'd never broken a bone before. All she did know was that she couldn't stand on it.

_Did I trip and fall last night? _

As she turned her head to look at her ankle, Rochelle noticed that her body was一 it was _smaller._ And by smaller, she meant _childlike. _It looked like she had shrunk about ten sizes overnight. How could she have just noticed this! Not just her ankle, but her legs, her hands, her feet, her chest, this was not her body!

Rochelle's heart rate doubled in speed as she scrambled up and hobbled over to the doorway. She barely had control over the body. She leaned against the cold wall and caught her breath. She couldn't prepare herself for what she would see behind the curtain.

_You're kidding. _

All she could see was the color white, pure white. Her eyes couldn't adjust fast enough from the contrast of the dark room to the bright light. She roughly rubbed her hands over her eyes. The first thing she identified was snow. And it wasn't just on the ground, it was _everywhere._ She looked to the left, _snow,_ she glanced to the right, _snow,_ underneath her laid, guess what? _Snow, _and that was- was that an igloo? Last time she checked, it was June. In America. The Summer. In America.

_No_.

_No, no, no, this isn't right._

_This is insane. That's what it is. _

_This is crazy._

_This is insane!_

She was in a village. It looked so real, it could be the set of a movie. Or straight out of the 1500's. People were milling around doing whatever villagers do. Some were chatting, cooking, some kids were playing. No one had noticed her internal breakdown yet. Everyone wore thick coats outlined with fur, mostly blue, but she saw some brown and white coats as well. The only structures she could she were igloos and tents. Not camping tents by the way, these tents were covered in animal hides.

"-ouk! -ouk!"

Rochelle knew she wasn't dreaming. The pain coursing through her body made it very clear this was real life. _So I was kidnapped… and brought to Antarctica?… None of this is making sense. What time is it, where's my phone? _As Rochelle brought up a hand to her forehead to check her temperature, to, you know, make sure she wasn't feverish and hallucinating, she spotted a little girl running towards her.

"Nanouk! You're awake!"

Rochelle could feel a headache coming to join her already existing list of ailments. She got more confused with every second.

"Nanouk, you're finally awake!" The girl screamed out of excitement. She slowed from her sprint as she approached Rochelle. "Are you okay? You're probably hungry now. I'll go get Ajak!"

As the girl turned away to run again, Rochelle's brain was doing backflips against her skull. The last thing she could think about was being hungry. She was still trying to comprehend everything that was happening. Number one, she was in the tundra, somehow, someway. Number two, she was still in pain; her ankle was throbbing from her scrambling to the doorway. Number three, she had woken up in the body of a _child_. Oh, and to top it off, the girl had screamed loud enough to gain everyone in the vicinity's attention. "Oi, Nanouk!" "Nanouk!" "Hey, Nanouk!" they shouted.

Rochelle turned back towards the igloo. Were they calling for her? There was no one else in the igloo, and she knew she wasn't Nanouk, she was Rochelle. _It's whoever's body this was. _Rochelle shivered at the thought. She had no idea how she got to wherever she was, and didn't have a clue _if_ she could even get back home. For now, she'll just pretend she didn't hear anyone.

Before she could push aside the curtains, she felt a hand settle on her head. As she turned, her eyes followed the hand that rested atop her hair. The hand led up an arm, across a burly chest, and settled on the face of a man standing tall beside a woman. His eyes held a vast ocean. They were a deep shade of cerulean blue. In a soft voice, with a touch of sadness, the man asked, "Nanouk?"

Silence settled between the two adults and Rochelle. The onlookers who once shouted were hushed.

As the two continued to gaze at each other, Rochelle's chest tightened. The man proposed the name as a question, and waited for an answer. She didn't know what to say. These people were looking for the little girl Nanouk, one of their own. Instead, here was Rochelle, who had somehow taken her place.

The woman moved closer and pulled Rochelle into a tight hug. Rochelle's muscles tensed in pain. The woman whispered into her ear, voice constricted from the act of holding in tears. "We're so glad we found you. My surusiq, my Nanouk. Never run away again."

The man patted Rochelle on her head. "You worried your anaana half to death, even if you were only gone for a short time." He encircled both his arms around Rochelle and the woman and pulled them into his chest. "We know we are going through rough times right now, but you can always rely on us. No matter what, Nanouk."

Rochelle felt like she was intruding on such an intimate moment. She could feel pressure welling up behind her eyes. Her own mother was never a touchy person, she saved her all affection for her partner, rather than Rochelle. Despite not knowing these two people, and probably having stolen this girl's body, she felt her cheeks warm, her eyes close, and her body relax. She wished this was hers.

A tear escaped from her left eye.

"Let's get you inside Nanouk."


End file.
